Hybridisation and Cross-breeding as a Method of Scientific Investigation

Summary

It is with a special pleasure that I accepted the kind invitation of the Council to address this Conference of persons interested in hybridisation. Of all the methods which are open to us for investigating the facts of Natural History there is perhaps none which is more likely to bring forth results of firstrate importance. Not only is the field a vast one, but the work is ready to hand. Though the patience and labour needed are very great, the practical methods are simple, and can be in many cases carried out by any person who has leisure and is able to carry out anything accurately. Leisure, accuracy, and a garden of moderate extent are almost the only equipment necessary for such work. On the other hand, the scientific importance of the results to be obtained is transcendent.

It is perhaps simpler to follow the beaten track of classification or of comparative anatomy, or to make for the hundredth time collections of the plants and animals belonging to certain orders, or to compete in the production or cultivation of familiar forms of animals or plants. But all these pursuits demand great skill and unflagging attention. Any one of them may well take a man's whole life.